WREXHAM defender Dave Bayliss described Tuesday's 4-1 defeat at Wycombe as a "kick up the backside" and said he hoped Stockport would feel the backlash on Saturday's visit to the Racecourse.

The 29-year-old central defender refused to offer any excuses for a poor defensive performance by the Dragons, which manager Denis Smith later labelled as extremnely generous to John Gorman's unbeaten side.

Although teenage goalkeeper Michael Williams was at fault for Wycombe's opener, the youngster was left horribly exposed by Matt Bloomfield's diagonal pass that was converted by Nathan Tyson.

And Bayliss confessed: "We started out sloppily and didn't much improve.

"Mike did okay overall and I felt a bit sorry for him because we didn't give him much protection, to be honest.

"We can't make any excuses for the performance, despite the number of injuries we've got. We were poor from start to finish, to be fair, and there's not a lot we can take out of the game.

"It should be seen as a kick up the backside for us and, hopefully, it won't happen again. We are disappointed we didn't win against Macclesfield on Saturday and then to come here and put on the show we did was not very good.

"On Saturday against Stockport we'll have to make it up to the manager, to the fans and to ourselves."

Bayliss soldiered on for the whole 90 minutes, even though he picked up an ankle injury, while fellow defender Paul Linwood lasted 45 minutes after defying a neck problem to take his place in the starting line-up.

Smith said: "We had let a total of nine goals in before this game, but we could have let nine in tonight the way we defended.

"It was some appalling defending from us which made it extremely easy for them.

"And that's not the young players who had problems, it was other players. The first three goals were all down to mistakes and the third, in particular, came from a throw in their own half.

"It takes some doing to score from there and you have to be defending extremely badly to allow that, but it happened."

Smith was particularly annoyed by that goal, which came just minutes after Mark Jones had reduced the deficit to 2-1.

"Mark Jones' goal gave us more than a glimmer of hope because Wycombe had gone," he added. "At 2-1 they would have been under tremendous mental pressure with what's been happening in their previous games. Unfortunately we were feeling in an extremely generous mood tonight.

"We've had a lot of the play, but only scored one goal. Jamie Reed came on and the kid's had two chances which shows we should possibly have done better with the amount of play we had.

"But what's killed us is the way we've defended. I can make excuses, I've got a lot of players out. Perhaps Bayliss and Linwood shouldn't have played but they did and once they tell me they are fit they've got to go out and perform.

"Linwood was carrying a neck injury and I didn't expect him to play. Fair play to the lad he wanted to play, but he was struggling. Bayliss was struggling with an ankle injury, but wanted to stay on and I didn't have a lot of other options.

"We finished with three YTS lads on the pitch and we can only throw so many in at one time."

Striker Reed and defender Mike Williams came off the bench to make their league debuts, while goalkeeper Jones was making only his second start

"Mike Williams was at fault a bit for their third goal, but he did okay," said Smith

"He shouldn't be playing and, while people will blame the keeper for the first, he shouldn't be playing either. I'm delighted they've come on and shown a bit of character.

"The keeper did extremely well after his mistake, Mike has done a decent job and Jamie Reed came on and tried to be positive.

"Hopefully whoever is manager in two or three years time will get the benefits of those players."